Wide Awake
by Adrianna Rhode
Summary: Megan Sawyer is brought to Vegas by her abusive parents, trapped in a hotel room while they drink and gamble, awaiting her next beating. But when she escapes, she makes some very unlikely friends and finds that love is sometimes the best way to leave the world behind. Some language, violence, mentions of child abuse, strong themes.
1. Introduction

A/N: I really have no way to introduce this Fic. It tells itself pretty well. But I can share that the idea came to me in the shower. I was looking back on the day I saw Big Time Rush perform in Las Vegas. I remembered that I spotted Kendall and James at the pool from my hotel room in Mandalay Bay. No lie. And that, of course, got my writer's brain going. So here's the product of my strange little mind, a tale of hope, four boys, one down-and-out girl, and why sometimes, you just need someone to need you.

Fandom: Big Time Rush

Universe: Real-Life

Rated: T, for Language, Violence, Child Abuse, and some Self-Harm

"Big Time Rush looks like the type of guys who, if a girl was hurting, would give her a hug and tell her it'd be alright."

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Nobody looked twice. Nobody asked what was wrong. Nobody seemed to notice the girl running through the casino floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort that Friday morning. It was, after all, Las Vegas; strange things like lone underage girls running full-speed past blackjack tables were rather ordinary there.

And really, Megan Sawyer preferred it that way. The less people saw her, the smaller the chance they'd try to return her to her parents.

Her parents. A sob racked her small frame as she thought of her mother and father. She hoped with all her might that they hadn't gone back to the hotel room to find her missing. It took most of the morning to get up enough courage to run away, and now she was scared to death. What if they found her before she could hide?

Megan had never been to Las Vegas before, but she was finding out the hard way that these resorts were huge, almost like small cities. It had taken her a long time just to get out of the casino. Frankly, she was surprised that security hadn't stopped her. Megan was seventeen, old enough to be out on her own, but she didn't look it. Still running, she decided to set course for the pool. Maybe she could hide there until…

The thought trailed off in her head. Megan didn't want to think about what was in store for her that night if her parents caught her. For now, she decided, the plan was just to run. To put as much distance between herself and that hotel room as she could. And as she went down flights of stairs, down winding hallways, and finally sprinted outside into the blazing Nevada heat, she assured herself that it would be almost impossible to trace her path. So, she stopped running, clutching at a stitch in her side. Now that she was moving at just a walk, the emotions caught up with her. She heaved with dry sobs, more with fear than any other emotion.

Suddenly, a woman's scream broke the silence she had so recently found, "MEGAN ANN SAWYER! I KNOW YOU'RE OUT THERE."

All the color drained from Megan's face. Her worst fears were confirmed. Her mother was coming. The crying stopped immediately as Megan set off at a run again. She passed countless yards of hedges before she saw a most welcome sight: the entrance to the pools. Flashing her room key at the security guard at the gate, she tore inside. Her first instinct was to hide. She could still hear her mother screaming things in the distance. Obviously, she hadn't seen Megan, she was just trying to scare the girl into giving herself up.

"I can't stop now," Megan said to herself desperately, "I can't. I don't deserve this anymore. Let me get away."


	2. I'm With You

A/N: So here's the first real chapter. I bet you recognize some people in this one.

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Megan felt like a cornered animal. Any minute, her mother was going to find her. She was still running, still trying to find the most sheltered place she possibly could. But something was in her favor that day. Right before her was a nook, a piece of poolside pavement that was so surrounded by bushes and flowering plants that it was completely hidden. Hope rushing into her heart, she rounded the bend into that area.

"I'm going to be okay," Megan whispered, "She won't find me. She wont-"

But she was cut short. As she entered the patio, she barreled right into someone. Both Megan and this person fell to the ground, as she shrieked from the unexpected impediment.

"Whoa there, are you okay?" a male voice asked her.

But Megan was too stuck in her own head to answer. The person she'd knocked down and promptly hopped back up, laughing with someone sitting in a lounge chair a few feet away. Megan stayed on the ground, tears welling in her eyes. This was too much. She'd made too much noise. Her mother was bound to have heard her. She was going to be caught, she was going to be punished, she-

"You okay, sweetheart?"

This time, Megan looked up. A young man was standing over her, one hand extended to help her up. He had short spiky dark-brown hair and brown eyes, and a face that probably would've been handsome if it wasn't clouded over with so much worry. There were two or three other guys of about the same age sitting in chairs behind him, staring at her with concern.

"I…" Megan stuttered, trying to fight back the overwhelming urge to cry, "I…NO!"

The young man looked slightly taken aback as he watched Megan begin to cry. She was shaking like a leaf, tears pouring down her cheeks. All of the emotion she'd been fighting for so long was slipping out of her. It felt so good to just CRY. So she did.

"Oh jeez, is she okay, man?" Megan heard one of the boys in the chairs ask his friend.

"I don't know," the spiky-haired one replied.

"Let's get her up. You didn't hurt her, did you, Logan?" One of the boys came over to Megan and scooped her up in his arms. He set her down gently on the lounge he had just vacated, and sat next to her, one arm around her shoulders. Another boy came over to sit on her other side.

Normally, being manhandled and physically moved by men she'd never met would definitely not be something Megan would allow. But right now, they were taking care of her, something she'd never experienced. They were holding her tight, letting her cry and not asking any prying questions. And that was the best feeing in the world.

They talked above her as she sat and let herself cry.

"Where'd she come from, do you think?" one of them asked softly.

"I dunno. How old does she look? Should we get someone?" another replied.

"I think we can handle it."

After a few minutes, she began to calm down. She could finally see the boys' faces, and she noticed that all four of them were sitting around her in a little circle, watching her like they weren't sure what to do with her.

The boy on her right retracted his arm from around her shoulders. She turned to look at him as he spoke, studying his face carefully.

"Hi, honey. I'm James," he said quietly. He had been the one who picked her up.

"I'm Megan," she found herself answering in a shaky whisper.

"I'm Carlos," added the boy on her left.

"I'm Kendall, and this is Logan, the one who so rudely knocked you down," said a third boy, a blonde, gesturing to the fourth, spiky-haired one.

"Dude," Logan said, frowning at his friend, then turning his attention to Megan, "I'm really sorry about that, darlin'. Did I hurt you?"

"N-no," said Megan, finding her voice.

"Did he startle you?" asked Carlos, putting a hand on her arm, "Because you shouldn't let a dork like Logan make you cry for something like that."

"No," Megan said again, starting to feel very shy, "I just…I'm sorry. I should go."

"You don't need to go yet. In case you didn't notice, you're still crying. And I'd feel guilty if you left still feeling sad after Logan knocked you down like an idiot," said the blonde, Kendall, with a sneaky smile at Logan.

Megan shook her head, "It wasn't him, honest. I mean, that's not why I'm upset."

"Then why are you?" asked Kendall.

"That's not something I spread around. It's kind of a long story, and most people…most people don't understand it," said Megan, biting her lip.

The one called James gave her a soft smile, "You can tell us, if you think it'd help. We're not going anywhere, and we're certainly not going to hold it against you."

Megan took a shaky breath, and nodded. She dove right into her story, first slowly, but increasingly fast, the words tripping over each other in their hurry to be spoken. She told them that her parents' names were Noah and Mariah Sawyer. She said that Noah was in the oil business, and how he had plenty of money but he chose to spend it on alcohol and fancy cars and things he didn't need.

She told that Mariah loved living a fancy expensive lifestyle that they could never afford, especially because she did drugs. She explained how her father told her that it was her fault that the state of things for their family kept getting worse, that everything was her fault.

When she was ten, her father started beating her. Because Mariah didn't work, she would abuse Megan during the day, and then Noah would come home drunk and take over the 'punishment'. That was seven years ago. Now she was seventeen, and Megan finally decided she'd had enough.

As she finished her story, Megan saw the boys' faces, staring at her with wonder and horror. She was worried; were they going to call the police? That never worked for her in the past. Or maybe they'd think she was lying. Almost everybody else did.

Carlos was the first one to speak, "Megan…you're saying that your parents abuse you."

She nodded, the tears threatening to spill over again.

"So this…" Carlos reached out and touched a tender bruise on her neck, and then one on her arm, "And this…"

"How could anyone let this happen to you?" Kendall wondered out loud.

"You don't know my parents," Megan said, "They can convince ANYONE that they're perfect. People think I do this to myself for attention…or that I get beat up at school….anything but abuse at home."

"Well, you can't go back to them," James said with finality.

"T-that's why I have a plan," Megan said, surprising herself with her own audacity, "And you can help me."

Kendall raised a bushy eyebrow at her, "What kind of plan?"

Megan hesitated, "Well…are you guys going to be around here for awhile longer?"

"Um…" James cleared his throat.

"Because my birthday is next week. When I turn eighteen, I can leave my parents and they can't stop me. I doubt they even know when my birthday is, so if I hang out with you during the day…I'll get by until then…" Megan explained, her voice growing quieter until it trailed off.

Logan looked at her sideways, "Honey, are you sure you've never seen us before?"

That was an odd question. Megan shook her head, "Not until now, no. Why?"

"Just wondering if there was a reason you came to us," Logan said nonchalantly.

"I sort of just ran into you guys. Literally," Megan said.

The four boys looked at each other significantly. Megan seemed to have no idea who she had just encountered. They were, of course, Big Time Rush, the Nickelodeon boyband that was performing a show for their summer tour in the Mandalay Bay Events Center that night. For the first time, a girl had come up to them wanting to talk, and she didn't even know they were famous.

They didn't want to spoil the experience, either. She obviously needed someone to help her, and the boys weren't sure she'd find anyone else willing to help.

"Well," Carlos said finally, "We're actually leaving really late tonight. But if you wanna hang out with us today, you're welcome to."

The other three nodded in agreement.

"Thank you," Megan breathed, "You don't know how nice that is."

"It's no trouble. You just need a place to chill," james shrugged.

"Now, let's go inside and get this lady cleaned up," Kendall said, getting to his feet, "Because some of those wounds need attention and your makeup is a mess."

Megan's face split into the first real smile she'd worn in weeks, "Oh, thank you so much for that, Kendall."

"No problem, m'lady," he joked.

Still making small talk, the boys led Megan out of the pool area, to a set of double doors behind the hotel. Megan hadn't been back there yet, and she wasn't sure they were allowed to be there. But James showed a man at the door a laminated pass and they went inside. There were lots of doors, most of them closed. But Logan took them through a door on the end of a long hallway, and Megan was instantly at ease.

The room was painted pale blue, with some art hung on the walls and televisions everywhere. Three couches were arranged in a square around a coffee table, and two dog beds sat in the corner. Another doorway led to a darker, narrower room along the back wall.

"This is our…lounge, you could say," Kendall explained.

"Cool place," Megan said quietly.

"Yeah, we just hang out here. Play video games. Play with the dogs," James commented.

Megan's face lit up, "You guys have dogs?"

"Well, two of us," Carlso said, "I have a German shepherd named Sydney, and James has this little dog called an Alaskan Klee Kai. His name is Fox."

"Can I meet them?" she asked.

"Of course," James said.

He went into the darker room and came back with a small black-white-and-gray puppy in his arms. The German shepherd followed at his heels.

"Awhh!" Megan got down onto the floor and started to pet both dogs, who jostled each other joyfully for the attention.

She was totally absorbed in the dogs. Megan used to have a dog, but not surprisingly, her father got rid of it soon after he started getting into alcohol and abuse, so she was glad to have dogs to play with again. She didn't even notice that three of the boys had left until Carlos came over and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Meg? We have to go…go out for awhile. Would you mind staying down here for a little while? Nobody will bother you, we told the, ah, hotel staff that you're with us," said Carlos.

"Oh…yeah, I'll be fine here," Megan nodded, "Better than if I was out there, anyway."

Carlos smiled sadly, "We'll be back, sweetheart."

She waved as he walked out of the room and shut the door tightly. Fox had curled up on her lap and was napping, his little body relaxed and breathing heavily. Sydney was still sitting, waiting to shower the girl with licks as a reward for petting.

And for the first time in years, Megan felt perfectly safe.


End file.
